Iran

During 2010, Paul made three missions to Tehran & Esfahan, working with UNIDO on developing the “Energy efficiency for Industrial Sectors in Iran – to 2025” programme. This focused on preparing a fully-costed, $20.5 M GEF/ UNIDO/ Iranian Government programme for GEF endorsement.

The proposed 4-year programme has the aim of improving the relative energy consumption of “Big 5” industry sectors by 20% by 2024/5, with estimated cumulative target savings of 300 Mt CO2. The “Big 5” sectors are: steel, refineries, petrochemicals, cement and bricks, which combined account for >70% of the country’s industrial energy consumption.

Initial findings from the study were presented at the “Iran Industrial Energy Efficiency Seminar/ Workshop”, Tehran, June 2010 and the draft proposal first submitted later that year. The draft Proposal has since been reviewed by UNIDO and GEF, and has been modified. However, relations between Iran and the rest of the international community remain “dynamic”, so progress has been slow and project approval has yet to be given. As the proposal has yet to be endorsed, it would be premature to provide details.